A critical-place ethnography of transfronterizo teachers at the intersections of self-defense, self-creation, and borderlands identity formation

ABSTRACT Teacher identity work throughout one’s academic studies and career has been shown to have a positive impact on teachers’ resilience and longevity in the field, in contrast to those who do not engage in these kinds of reflexive practices. This research expands our understanding of teacher identities and how they develop within and outside school settings, acknowledging the complex paths teachers navigate to enter the classroom. To promote reflexive thinking among pre-service and in-service teachers about their identities, how they inform their desire to teach and their instructional practices, this inquiry presents an account of teachers who were at one time transfrontertizos – when they were students, they crossed the border from Mexico to attend U.S. schools. Drawing from ethnographic research conducted in Calexico and its neighbouring city of Mexicali, it explores how their experiences of crossing back and forth between two countries for education shaped their identities in distinct ways.